KINGSTON LACY, UK - SEPTEMBER 29, 2012: A view toward the country house at Kingston Lacy with landscaped gardens in Summer; Shutterstock ID 1033498075; your: Bridget Brown; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI Image Update

Matt Gibson/Shutterstock

Kingston Lacy

Top choice in Dorset


Dorset's must-see stately home looks every inch the setting for a period drama. It overflows with rich decor, most famously in the Spanish Room, which is smothered with gold and gilt. Other highlights are the hieroglyphics in the Egyptian Room and the elegant marble staircase and loggia. Artworks include the overwhelming ceiling fresco The Separation of Night and Day, by Guido Reni, and paintings by Rubens, Titian and Van Dyck.

Kingston Lacy is 2.5 miles west of Wimborne.

The house became the home of the aristocratic Bankes family when they were evicted from Corfe Castle by the Roundheads during the Civil War; look out for the bronze statue of Dame Mary Bankes in the loggia – she's shown still holding the keys to her much-loved castle in her hand. In the extensive landscaped grounds, hunt out the restored Japanese Tea Garden and the Iron Age hill fort of Badbury Rings.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Dorset attractions

1. Chained Library

2.09 MILES

The Chained Library, in Wimborne Minster, was established in 1686 and is stacked with some of the country's oldest medieval books, 12th-century lambskin…

2. Wimborne Minster

2.09 MILES

A monastery was first founded in Wimborne, 10 miles north of Bournemouth, in around AD 705 by St Cuthburga. Most of the present-day Wimborne Minster was…

3. Poole Museum

7.06 MILES

The building alone is worth seeing – a beautifully restored 15th-century warehouse. The star exhibit is a 2300-year-old Iron Age logboat dredged up from…

4. King Charles

7.07 MILES

One of Poole's oldest pubs, the building dates from around 1150.

5. Custom House

7.07 MILES

The impressive red-brick Custom House dates from 1813 – look out for the Union Jack and gilded coat of arms.

7. Brownsea Island

8.38 MILES

On this small, wooded island in the middle of Poole Harbour, trails weave through heath and woods, past peacocks, red squirrels, red deer and a wealth of…

8. Alum Chine

9.11 MILES

Bournemouth's 1920s heyday is beautifully evoked at a subtropical enclave containing plants from the Canary Islands, New Zealand, Mexico and the Himalayas…